PTI Senator Ejaz Chaudhry arrested again after release from Adiala Jail

Senator Ejaz Chaudhry, the additional secretary general and former Punjab president of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), was arrested again Thursday soon after he was released from Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) had earlier declared his arrest under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Ordinance (MPO) as illegal and ordered his release.

As his family waited outside the jail for his release, the PTI senator was rearrested after exiting from the back gate and taken away by security officials in a private vehicle.

Chaudhry was arrested along with other senior party leaders after violent countrywide protests following Chairman Imran Khan's arrest in the Al-Qadir Trust case on May 9.

During the days-long protests, which ended only after Khan's release, enraged PTI workers attacked private and public properties, including military installations — the Lahore Corps Commander House or Jinnah House and the General Headquarters (GHQ) entrance.

Separately, an audio leak allegedly featuring Chaudhry had come to the fore in which he could be heard telling another person — believed to be his son Ali Chaudhry — that the protesters had ransacked the Corps Commander House and everything in the house including the flowerpots had been destroyed.

He added that three people also sustained bullet injuries.

Thousands of PTI workers and leaders were arrested following the May 9 vandalism and Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir has announced that the legal process to try all those involved in the attacks on military installations under the Pakistan Army Act and the Official Secrets Act has begun.

Earlier this week, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who was released from Adiala Jail on the IHC's order, was also rearrested shortly afterwards.

A slew of leaders has been leaving the PTI since the May 9 violence, including senior vice presidents Fawad Chaudhry and Shireen Mazari. Separately, secretary general Asad Umar also announced Wednesday that he was stepping down from the position and would no longer be a part of the core committee as well.